Mr. Cunningham. A revolver has a revolving cylinder. There is a space between the barrel and the front portion of the cylinder.
Mr. Eisenberg. I wonder whether you could show that by use of Exhibit 143?
Mr. Cunningham. You can see when you close the cylinder, and each chamber lines up, there is a few thousandths space between. When the bullet is fired, the bullet jumps across this space and enters the ramp and then into the rifling.
The gases always escape through this small space. The loss is negligible, but the gases are escaping on every shot. After you fire this revolver, you can see residues, smoke deposits and other residues around the entrance to the rear portion of the barrel which is next to the cylinder, as well as on the cylinder itself.
So you would expect to find gunpowder residues on a person's hands after he fired a revolver.
Mr. Eisenberg. Do I understand your testimony to be that there is no equivalent gap in the manufacture of a rifle?
Mr. Cunningham. That is correct.
Mr. Eisenberg. Did you run any kind of a test with this revolver which would indicate whether it did in fact leave residues?
Mr. Cunningham. Yes; I did, or we did, three of us, Mr. Frazier, Mr. Killion, and myself. The tests were run on me. I was the one who washed my hands thoroughly. I did not use a brush, I just washed them with green soap and rinsed them in distilled water.
Mr. Eisenberg. The purpose of this washing was what?